AllFreeNovel
Share Us
From across the room, Diana looked up, her frown deepening. It was though she could sense that this was another element to Evelina’s plan, even if she herself was unaware of the details.
“I am to be a bride soon, Mother,” Evelina said smoothly, taking her eyes off her sister, and smiling at Mother. “Perhaps it is time I evolve.”
Mother puffed herself up, glowing with pride at Evelina’s words. Oppositely, the seamstress quit measuring, instead beginning to pick at her cuticles with poorly concealed anxiety. “I should warn you, My Lady, that we are currently out of the fabric you are speaking of. In fact, I have heard it is in rather short supply across the city as a whole.”
Mother’s voice took on the ‘I am a Duchess’ tone she used whenever she wanted to ensure she got her way. “Are you saying you will not be able to fill the order?”
“Well…you see, it’s not just up to me…circumstances—”
Mother called over her shoulder to Diana in an admirably tactical maneuver. “Diana, how far away was that dress shop the Duchess of Horwich mentioned to me at the Almack’s ball?”
Before Diana could respond, the seamstress waved her cuticle-bitten hands in appeasement. “No, no, that won’t be necessary. Of course, we shall be able to fill the order.”
Mother smiled at the seamstress, the implied threat to take their business elsewhere abandoned. “Very good. I shall have only the very best for my firstborn’s engagement ball.” Her eyes landed on Evelina. “If my Darling’s heart is set on royal blue, then royal blue it shall be.”
Evelina thanked her mother in a rather syrupy way for the support, but the falseness tasted bitter on her tongue. It felt unnatural to carry herself with such conniving intent.
Please, Thomas. I cannot keep this up for long. Make haste and fix things soon.
